Holiday Caution Urged In Parched Conditions

September 01, 1995|By EDMUND MAHONY; Courant Staff Writer

Months of sparse rainfall have made this summer the driest in Connecticut in 51 years and, as the Labor Day holiday approached, state officials and weather forecasters Thursday warned weekend barbecuers of the state's extreme vulnerability to brush and forest fires.

``We want people to be extra aware and extra cautious,'' Gov. John G. Rowland said as he and other officials erected a fire prevention billboard featuring Smokey Bear at busy Pulaski Circle in downtown Hartford.

The National Weather Service's Northeast River Forecast Center in Taunton, Mass., said Thursday that a parched stretch of the state's shoreline running from Groton to Bridgeport was the driest stretch of ground in New England and has been given the service's most severe drought rating. But, the center said, everywhere else in the state was nearly as dry.

Mel Goldstein, director of the Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, said the state is so dry that the soil in many places has turned to powder to a depth of 6 inches.

``It's really like a tinderbox out there,'' Goldstein said.

Goldstein said an average of 4.01 inches of rain has fallen around the state for the period June, July and August. He said it has been the driest summer since 1944, when the state got 3.49 inches on average. The summers of 1964 to 1966 were the last ones to approach this summer in terms of lack of precipitation. During those years, the Northeast was in the midst of a three-year drought that resulted in water rationing.

Along the shore, the river forecast center said rainfall is more than 10 inches below what it should be for the year. Most rivers across New England are at half their normal flow, the center said.

The drought seems a paradox, given that the north Atlantic is experiencing one of its busiest hurricane seasons in history. Three hurricanes, which can drench the region with rainfall amounts approaching 6 inches, were in the north Atlantic Thursday, along with a tropical storm.

The last time three hurricanes and a tropical storm were in the north Atlantic simultaneously was in 1961, Goldstein said. The last time there were four hurricanes at the same time was 1893, he said.

The meteorological culprit behind the drought is an enormous ridge of high pressure that has sat over the Northeast and reached into the Midwest for months, Goldstein said.

``What we're seeing is a mountain of air rising 40,000 feet up from the ground,'' he said. ``It is the Mount Everest of the atmosphere.''

Normally, Goldstein said, at this time of year New England would be periodically soaked by weather systems moving southeast from Canada or by hurricanes and tropical storms moving generally north from the tropics.

But, he said, the weather systems simply can't get past the mountain of air. Those coming from Canada fizzle out. Those moving up from the south are diverted out to sea, like Hurricane Felix, which progressed as far as the Carolinas before changing direction.

So far, potential water shortages are not a big concern, Goldstein said. He said reservoirs have been holding up because of higher-than- average rates of precipitation in recent years.

There were forecasts of light and widely scattered showers in Connecticut for Thursday night. But so far this month, such forecasts have been, at best, ephemeral threats. The state could use the rain, Goldstein said, because the forecast for Labor Day weekend is for kiln-like conditions.

The forecast for Friday is for bone-dry conditions with a freshening northwest breeze, Goldstein said. Such weather will only exacerbate the forest fire threat going into the holiday weekend.

``It will be extreme to the nth degree,'' he said.

The shoreline is so dry it needs 4 to 6 inches of rain to alleviate drought conditions, he said.